A ruined adventure

This photograph illustrates a failed pricing system for a scarce resource. Nepal currently charges $9,000 for a licence, which is clearly too little. Nepal is desperately poor and all the people (apart from the Sherpas) in this photograph are rich. But these people are not getting what they paid for, which is a thrilling experience and a sense of triumph. Instead they are being put at enormous risk for a mind numbingly awful experience. If Nepal tripled the price they’d probably get more revenue and the customers would get a better experience. To ration  by price is the only sensible way forward in these circumstances.

Chris